“Architecture speaks. It is not possible for human beings to live in architectural silence. Because we always want to keep the rain off, we are always speaking.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 19
The Goodness of Work
“One of the first things we must recognize is that work does not exist in the world because of the Fall. Work got a lot more difficult because of our sin, and do labor under the ramifications of a curse. But God gave the cultural mandate to mankind, a mandate which involved an enormous amount of work, before the entrance of sin.”
Ploductivity, p. 13
The Spirituality of Toes
“We assume the center when we are filled with the Spirit, and when He flows out of us. The Spirit is the center. This happens using physical things. Spiritual does not just mean like a spirit. Spiritual also means obedient. When we offer our bodies rightly, it is our spiritual worship (Rom. 12:1-2). The devil is a spirit who is unspiritual in this sense, and you have ten toes, which can be spiritual—if they are shod with the gospel of peace”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 17
Artesian Well of Life
“The church is not supposed to function as a rain barrel, or a collection tank. The church is a place from which the water is supposed to flow everywhere else.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 16
Tools as Wealth
“Technology is therefore a form of wealth. The reason this is important is because the Bible says very little about technology as such, but it gives us a great deal of blunt and pointed teaching on the subject of wealth. If we learn how to deal with wealth scripturally, then we will have learned how to deal with technology. This also makes it obvious that these problems are not new problems at all”
Ploductivity, p. 11
A Larger Book Allowance, Yay!
“Some preachers are always preaching the last book which they have read, and their congregations always find it out. The feeling of superficialness and thinness attaches to all they do . . . If I am right in this idea, then it will follow that the preacher’s life must be a life of large accumulation”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 122
Because They Already Bought Another Kind of Insurance
“There are people who go to respectable churches because it seems like a good place to network with people who might want to buy insurance.”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 12
Maxwell’s Hammer
“We have a perennial temptation to locate sin as resident in the stuff. Some refuse to see sin in the stuff, and therefore conclude there must not be any sin. Those are the technophiles. Others see clearly that there is sin, and so they conclude that it must be in the stuff, though maybe it is not in the earlier stuff. These are the technophobes . . . Maxwell’s silver hammer did come down upon somebody’s head, but we go astray when we blame the silver hammer. The problem was in Maxwell.”
Ploductivity, p. 10
What the Building Says
“When the saints start to come in for the service, the building should say, ‘Shhh . . . the church is here now.’ The saints should not say, ‘Shhh . . . you’re in church now. The building is not God’s mausoleum”
Let the Stones Cry Out, p. 9
Chrestomathy Template
“Is it possible to be both relaxed and driven? People who are only relaxed are frequently slackers, and much of the book of Proverbs would appear to apply to them. But people who are driven give a diligent work ethic a bad name. Nobody wants to be like that. We might admire the house they can afford, but nobody wants to be like the people who live in it.”
Ploductivity, p. 7